A popular gimmick for food blogs is to eat and review every item on a restaurant's menu. This blog is no exception. These are the observations I've had while eating my way through the burger menu of The Works, a Canadian burger restaurant with locations across Ottawa and Ontario. The WORKS (900 Watters Road) Burger Description: "Avocado, Beechhouse sauce, sundried tomato & feta cheese." March 25, 2024 I'm overdue for writing about these burgers. So much so that I can't help but notice a lot has changed around the site of my favourite Works location. I see some businesses have come an ..read more

The second edition of the two-day  I❤︎ Beer & Taco Festival rolled into Ottawa last weekend. I went to the second of three sessions, the first on Friday, and the last starting later that afternoon. These were my impressions. Entering the Cattle Castle (I'll never get used to calling it the Aberdeen Pavilion, no matter how many years have passed since the last SuperEx), I was handed a plastic cup for beer sampling. Already this is more than what the Food & Wine Festival gave people. I wanted to bring my son to this but after buying the tickets I learned it's a ..read more

Nowadays soul food is used to describe any well-loved homemade comfort food. Traditionally, soul food is food rooted in African American culture in the southern United States during the time of slavery. Slaves were given food that was low in quality and nutritional value, foods that their masters didn't want to eat for themselves. Using the techniques they learned before being snatched from their homelands, enslaved Africans adapted their traditional recipes with the resources available. These methods became the basis of the soul food dishes we know and love today. There's a lot to like about ..read more

On or around January 25 poetry lovers and people of Scottish descent get together to celebrate the life of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns. This celebration includes a Burns supper, a meal of traditional Scottish cuisine, some Scotch whisky, and lots of readings of his works. Naturally, haggis will be a part of this meal, but there's more to Scottish cooking than offal meat and oatmeal cooked in an animal's stomach. Cullen skink is a fish chowder named after the town of Cullen on the coast in northeast Scotland. Try the recipe below if you're looking for a starter for your Burns dinner ..read more

I don't know as much about feminism as Justin Trudeau does, which is why I don't understand the girl dinner trend. According to TikTok, a girl dinner is any low-effort meal you make when you’re alone. It could be a fruit or vegetable platter, instant noodles, some sliced meat and cheese on a plate, or even leftovers. It qualifies just as long as you post a video of it as Olivia Maher did. These meals are apparently quite liberating for women, as it allows them to take a break from their traditional role of preparing complicated meals for men. I didn't think being too lazy to make somethi ..read more

If you plan to cook something this holiday season, at some point you're going to be using butter.  You will be either using it in baking, frying something in it, coating something with it, or spreading it directly onto something you want to eat. Butter on its own is great, but there are ways to get even more out of one of the most versatile cooking fats. Honey butter is exactly what it sounds like - honey blended into butter. Simple to make, it's great on toast, English muffins, pancakes, waffles, and cornbread. Ingredients 2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature (the bette ..read more

Knowing how I like spicy foods, a friend brought me a souvenir from a vacation he took with his family. Lil' Nitro claims to be the world's hottest gummy bear, with boasts of it being "900 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper". With the memory of a teenager dying from eating a tortilla chip dusted with two of the hottest peppers in the world still fresh in my mind, I'm going to eat this searing sweet. Can I go a full five minutes without seeking relief to complete the Lil’ Nitro Challenge? Let's go to the footage ..read more

If I'm having Mexican food, there's a good chance I'm having a Jarritos soda with it. Founded in 1950 by Don Francisco "El Güero" Hill, the popular Mexican soft drink gets its name from the Spanish for "little jugs" as fruit-flavoured aguas fresca were traditionally kept in clay jugs to keep cool for long periods. A cold Jarritos perfectly offsets a spicy taco or burrito. As today is the anniversary of the creation of this beverage, here are my impressions of all that  Jarritos has to offer.   Lime - One of the original flavours released, this is my go-to Jarritos beverage, mo ..read more

Chef. Addict. Writer. TV star. Provocateur. Until his untimely death by suicide, Anthony Bourdain was all of these. In its attempt to get to know who Bourdain was, director Morgan Neville relies on footage from Bourdain's many shows and media appearances, along with interviews with people who knew him. It is said that fame changes a person, and "Roadrunner" shows that in three parts. We see that behind Bourdain's cool outer shell was a geeky romantic, who did his best to keep it together when fame found him. We see that it took time for Bourdain to grow into the engaging persona fans ha ..read more

Source: https://macleans.ca/ Ottawa is a city where you see politicians milling around downtown often. But one day in February 2009, a politician made his first official visit to the city and caused a commotion that you would expect when A-list celebrities appear on a Hollywood red carpet. U.S. President Barack Obama, fresh off his first inauguration the previous month, dazzled the City That Fun Forgot with his grace, charm, and overall coolness - I imagine this was what the buzz was like when JFK was elected or the Trudeamania Justin's dad experienced back in the sixties. The highlig ..read more